Creating an Advanced Google Form

In the last part you learned how to make a basic Google Form. This section will expand your knowledge of Google Form creation. Not only will you create a form with a variety of question types, we will also add images, videos, titles, and sections. Finally, you will create multi-branching forms where specific responses will lead users to different questions.

Creating an Interactive Form

Having learned how to create a basic form in Chapter Two, you will be tasked to create a quick form that we will add new, and interactive elements to.

Adding Advanced Features

What we will learn in this section:

How to add an image

How to add a video

How to add a title

Step 1: Set up a Basic Form

To begin, create a new form titled “Gender and Video Games”

Add the following three questions:

How familiar are you with Video Games?

Change the question type to “Linear Scale.” This is a new type, but it is similar to multiple choice. The only difference is it will create the options of 1 to 5.

Add a description that reads “Select the number which best represents your level of familiarity with video games.”

Which elements do you commonly find in video games?

Create a check box question with the following options:

Strong Male Characters

Strong Female Characters

Sexualized Male Characters

Sexualized Female Characters

Rescuing Male Characters

Rescuing Female Characters

Killing Male Characters

Killing Female Characters

Kidnapping Male Characters

Kidnapping Female Characters

Note: You can copy and paste a number of choices into your form, so long as they are formatted as one choice per line.

Do you prefer games with Male protagonists or Female protagonists?

Create a multiple choice question with two options:

Male protagonists

Female protagonists

Step 2: Adding Images to Your Form

To add an image to your form, you need to click the Add Image button on the Insert Options toolbar.

You can choose to upload an image from your computer, paste the URL to an image, take a picture using a webcam, or add an image from your Google Drive.

However, the easiest way to add an image to your form is to click on the Search option. This allows you to search Google Images for a specific image.

For our purposes search for “Video Game Characters”

You can refine your search by colour, if you want to keep a specific theme. Right now, you are searching for an image that displays a number of video game characters. Choose one that suits your needs by clicking on it.

Then click the select button in the bottom left. This will add the image to your form.

Use the movement tab to drag the image all the way to the top of your form.

Step 3: Adding a Video to Your Form

Adding a video is nearly identical to adding an image. Click on the Add video button, search for an appropriate video, and click the select button.

I used this video because Cammy and Guile are essentially the same character (highly trained western military officers) – however, a number of gender distinctions are obvious when comparing the two.

You can feel free to adding a video about Mario Kart, Zelda, or anything else that is relevant to video games.

Once you have added this video, use the movement tab to drag it above your second question.

Step 4: Directing Users to View the Video

Once the video has been added, and placed above the question Which elements do you commonly find in video games? add a description to the question.

The description should read: To answer this question, use your own prior knowledge, as well as information gained through watching the above clip.

Step 5: Resizing and Aligning the Video

Click on the video, and you will see a blue rectangle with four square anchor points in the corners. Click on the bottom left anchor and drag it, to enlarge the video.

Next, click to the side of your video clip and you will notice a three-dot-menu is displayed. Click on it, and select “Center align”.

Step 6: Adding a Title

Adding a title is even easier than adding an image for video. Simply click on the Add title button, and an “Untitled Title” will pop up.

Rename the title “What do You Know?” and drag it to the top, using the movement tab.

Copy the title, just like you would copy a question. Rename the copy to “Video Game Characters” and drag it above the video you added.

Copy that title, and rename the copy to “What do You Prefer?” and drag it above your final question.

Now, when you preview your form, you will see that each question has its own heading. You may want to use less headings on your own forms, going forward. The colour of the title changes depending on the theme you have selected.

Note: You can also add a description below titles if you want. This can be a great way to create different parts of your form.

Creating Sections

What we will learn in this section:

How to add Sections

How to add data validation to questions

How to duplicate a section

How to choose sections based on answers

Step 7: Creating a New Section

Forms can be broken up into sections. Each section is a different “screen” for the user. This can be useful when you want a user to be focused on a new idea or concept in your form. It can also help keep a multi-question form from scrolling ever-downwards, without end.

To create a new section, simply click on the Add section button on the Insert Options toolbar.

Note that the new section will be created directly below your currently selected object (question, titile, image, or video).

If you make a mistake, you can either use the keyboard shortcut [CTRL+Z] to undo the creation of the section, or you can click on the three-dot-menu for the section, and select “Merge with above”.

Note, you can also drag objects between sections, just as you would move them around on a form without sections.

Ensure that your new section is created after the final question. Rename it from Untitled Section to Female Protagonists.

Now, after your last question, there is a button to go to the NEXT page, rather than a submission button.

Step 8: Populating Your New Section

Create the following three questions:

How are women in video games normally represented?

Make a check box question with the following options:

Heroes

Victims

Playable characters

Non-playable characters

Strong

Weak

Do you see your values represented in female video game characters?

Make a multiple choice question with the following options:

Yes

No

Explain what values you see, or do not see, represented in the characters?

Make a paragraph question

Step 9: Data Validation

Through data validation we can add certain requirements to our questions. For example, if we wanted the user to consider a number of different ways women are portrayed in video games, we might want them to pick more than one of the six options. However, perhaps we don’t want them to pick all of them. We want them to be specific.

First, add a description to the question that reads Choose the three options that best apply.

Note that when you went into the three-dot-menu to add a description to the question, there was also an option reading “Data Validation”. Click it.

New options will have appeared at the bottom of your question.

Choose Select exactly, change the number to 3, and add a custom error text of “You must select exactly three options.”

Step 10: More Data Validation

Now that you’re an expert of Data Validation, add some to your paragraph answer as well. Note that the type of data validation is different for this question. You aren’t adding restrictions on what options the user can choose, instead you’re ensuring they have a specific character count.

Since the average word length in English is five characters, set the minimum character count to 500. This is approximately 100 words.

Step 11: Duplicating a Section

If you need two similar sections, it can be advantageous to simply duplicate them. We require another section exactly like the Female Protagonists, but for Male Protagonists. Rather than creating the questions again, we will just copy the entire section.

To duplicate a section, scroll to the top of the section, and click on the three-dot-menu and choose “Duplicate section.”

You will now have an exact copy below your current section.

Step 12: Modifying the Duplicate

Rename the duplicated section to Male Protagonists.

Change the word women to men in the first question.

Change the word female to male in the second question.

Step 13: Beautifying the Sections

Add an image of a female video game character to the top of the Female Protagonists section, and a male video game character to the top of the Male Protagonists section

I used Link and Zelda from The Legend of Zelda series.

Step 14: Admire your Form

Now that you’ve completed your new section, click the preview button and navigate through your form. Note that after the first section, you will reach the second sections, and then the third section, before you can submit.

Looks pretty good, but we’re not done yet!

Branching Sections

What we will learn in this section:

How to choose sections based on answers

Step 15: Understanding Section Connections

Scroll all the way back to the last question of section one. Note that at the end of that section it says “After section 1 Continue to next section”. If you click on Continue to next section you will open a dropdown menu:

You can choose what should happen once the user completes that section. Should that end the form, leading to submission, or should it lead to section 3, or simply continue to the next numerical section?

We are not going to be changing this. But – it is important to understand that you can select what section will be displayed after clicking the NEXT button.

Step 16: Choosing Sections Based on Answers

You do not need to send your users through each section on your form. There may be times when you want users to be asked certain questions only if they gave certain answers to a prior question.

For our purposes, we are going to use the last question in the first section to determine if the user will be asked the Male Protagonist questions or the Female Protagonist questions.

Click on the Do you prefer games with Male protagonists or Female protagonists? question. Click on the three-dot-menu, and select Go to section based on answer.

Once you have selected this, each of the multiple choice options will display a dropdown menu allowing you to choose which section that specific answer will send the user to.

Set the options so that answering Male Protagonist will send the user to the Male Protagonist section, and that answering Female Protagonist will send the user to the Female Protagonist section.

Step 17: Setting a Section Submission

If you preview the form, you will notice that if the user selects Male Protagonist, they will go to the final section, and be able to submit their results. However, if they select Female Protagonist they will be send to the Male Protagonist section after clicking NEXT in the Female Protagonist section.

Refer back to Step 15 for information on how to change a section to submit upon completion, rather than continuing to the next section.

Scroll to the bottom of Section Two, click on Continue to next section and change it to Submit form.

Step 18: Reflect on How Great You Are

That’s it. You’re done. You have a beautiful form with a number of sections, integrated video and images, and helpful titles.

At this point you have learned all the advanced features of basic Google Forms.

Next Steps

In our Next Partwe will learn how to create a self-marking quiz, or a more advanced test that self-marks the multiple choice questions, while allowing the creator to mark the written responses.